Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Can we trust labels? Well, when it comes to certified organic, the answer might be different than what you think.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Welcome to the Duster Mud podcast. I'm Shelly.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: I'm rich.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: After 25 years of being in the air force, we traveled the world and landed in southwest Missouri. And now we have a regenerative farm where we grow lots of proteins. But today we're gonna talk not so much about proteins, but maybe a little bit more about the fruits and vegetables world.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Now, we saw an article recently towards the middle of July from Doctor Merkola, and he was discussing some things about organics that really got our attention and went digging even further. Found some article or the article that that article was based on, and we wanted to just share with you today, I don't know, in our standard way of talking with you about things that we think about food and our food system, our thoughts regarding this particular organics article.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Yeah, so, organics. I thought for years that when a food was labeled organic, that it was like really as pure as the food could come. Really, honestly, like grandma grew it, maybe some sunshine and some water. But I since have obviously learned very different than that. That's not exactly what the industry is. And the industry might be even a little bit murkier than what I thought it was.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: So I want to read some highlights from this article.
So, the article title is, USDA sides with corporate agribusiness lobbyists as massive quantities of illegal imports crush us organic farmers.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: That's pretty harsh.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: Harsh long. The article was originally published by a 501 c three nonprofit organization called Organic.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Eye, bit of a watchdog, and they're.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: An organic watchdog agency. The members of this organization have been in the organics realm since before it was even a government regulated thing, and are highly recognized as leaders in the organic side of things. So Mark Castell is one of the executive directors or the executive director of Organic Eye. And one of the things that he is quoted saying in this article is, although almost universally complied with in domestic production, that system has completely broken down for imports. The system that he's talking about is the organic inspection.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: The inspections, okay.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: A large percentage of all foreign imports making up a sizable amount of the organic food Americans eat, are coming from producer groups whose grower members the USDA has exempted from the requirements to be certified.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Okay, so let's break that down real quick. Okay, grower group. So what they have done is in, I think originally in they had good intentions. They took small farmers, let's just say a coffee farmer, and he grows small batch coffee and it's organic. And he would like to get into the US market. Well, that's very difficult for, say, indigenous peoples that grow coffee to get into the organic US market. So they took, what, 100 of them? And they said, okay, 100 of you small guys, let's put you guys all together and lump about you into one group so you're not all having to pay the. You're small, let's make you like medium sized, and then we'll get you together into the US market.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Is that basically what, that's what they did.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: And then those groups then would get together and they would basically certify themselves is where this started. And that sort of self certification exempted them from USDA inspection and certification.
How that has changed is now because of this exemption, it allows large agribusiness companies in foreign countries to be that group certifier. And then they just go out and basically contract with the small local farmers. And now that is the group and the certifier is the company itself.
And then, so when he said that a large percentage of them are not inspected by the USDA, that it's 98% are not USDA inspected.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: So whenever you buy your coffee and it says organic on it, it might.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Or might not actually be organic.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: And, well, you know that it was 98% likely that it wasn't inspected by the USDA. By the USDA.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: That's correct.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: So there's no guarantee on anything coming over the line or into the country.
There's no guarantee then that it was inspected?
[00:05:36] Speaker A: That's correct.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: It was certified by a group somewhere.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Okay. Some third party entity, but in self designated.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the, that's the thing. So in the United States, the, the USDA is in charge of organic.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: And because it's the way that it started back in the eighties, before the USDA became in charge in 1990. Farm bill. In the eighties, the organic farmers would just use a third party certifier to certify themselves, basically. And then when the USDA came out with the organics whole thing in the farm.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: The organic word.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
They maintained that third party certification. So now those third party certifiers are basically agents for working for under the auspices of the USDA. Well, that same type of third party mentality applies in the foreign country markets.
The difference is that in those markets, what they're finding is they aren't just inspection agencies, they're not just a third party company.
Rich and shelly, organic inspection agency. It's more like the actual agra business.
They're the ones buying the produce from the local farmers or products and certifying it on and then sending it to the us market without having a USDA inspection. And what they're finding is a lot of times without any kind of premium that you would normally get from an organic product.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Right. So where it really becomes a problem is they, the cost of the produce and the products coming into the country is much less for the person on the other end. Buying it on the other end. Yeah.
Well, Costco, for instance, has a lot of organics. We'll get into that in a minute. But whenever they buy it from overseas, it is much cheaper for them to buy what's coming, what's being imported than what the us organic farmers are growing.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: That's correct.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: Because the stipulations on the organic us farmers are so much greater because they're actually inspected, it costs a lot more. Therefore the cost for the us farmer is high.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: That's correct.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: And the produce is higher.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Okay. So cheaper stuff coming in.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Is what it's creating.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: And so, and not authentic.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: Well, that in and of itself is bad for the us organic farmer.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: Because he's being priced, he, she, they are being priced out of the organics market. It's an expensive proposition. We looked into it originally when we started the whole farm. And what you're looking at is it's a $1,000 average is $1,000 a year to pay the certifier, that third party organization. So you have to do that for three years before you can label the product as organic.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: So your $3,000 in average just for paying the certifier before you can ever for the first time, label anything organic. And then you have all of the other, there's a ton of paperwork required, all kinds of tracking and testing. Like there's, there's a lot.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: It's high cost and it's high labor and it's, the inputs are different. It's harder to grow food organically.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: It is more difficult. It just takes more. You can't just throw herbicides on it. You can't take an airplane and just spray it.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: And it grow properly.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: And for us, it boiled down to, we were unwilling to do all of that. We just didn't want to. It was a yde. Yeah, no, no, we're not going to do that. And that's why you've heard us multiple times talk about our products as GMO free, because we don't want to get into all of that whole government oversight area of organic, because the USDA now basically owns that label. You can't have that label without the USDA.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: And so we said, not interested in playing that game with the government.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: So that's. That was sort of, you know, backstory for us as to why we did not go the organic route.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: It is with our products.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: With our products. It is very difficult and expensive.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: But we do like to buy organic food.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Well, I did.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: Oh, so what?
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Until I start reading this, and I realized that a large percentage. You mentioned Costco. I did a little bit of. Of background research and Costco, from what I can find, we're looking at about, oh, man, get into the grain. Costco. 40% to 50% of Costco's organic products are imported.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: So some years ago, it would just. It was kind of caught me weird. Like, what's. Where are they getting all these organic, all this organic produce all of a sudden? And it's affordable.
Where's it coming from?
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Because initially there wasn't a whole lot and it wasn't affordable.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Like, when they organic really started taking.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Like, no, I'm not buying that. I've got a family of six. I can't afford organic food. Then all of a sudden, one day I was like, well, maybe I can. At Costco, you can get organic food.
Why?
[00:11:34] Speaker A: 40% to 50% is imported. And then of that, 98% of that is not USDA inspected.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Right. So it comes across cheaper.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: It does come across cheaper. And it might be organic, right?
[00:11:51] Speaker B: It could be. They could have done it the right way.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: If it is. If it is product of the United States of America with an organic label, it is organic or there is legal recourse.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: So one thing that you can do then is make sure whenever you're buying your produce that it says products of the USA. Because when it comes to produce, they have to put that the country of origin versus meat. Altogether different podcast. But in the meat industry, you do not have to put the actual country of origin. If it came in, like, say, in the beef industry, for instance, if it came into the United States and it was packaged here, it can say product of USA. They're changing some of that. I know they're changing some of that, but it's been real confusing for a while, and so we'll see where that actually goes.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: So your largest organic produce sellers, the largest wholesalers of organic products, Whole Foods, Costco, Walmart, are really the largest. Yeah, Whole Foods, we've got 30% to 40% of their organic products are imported Costco, 40% to 50%, Walmart 35% to 45%. All imported of their organic products. And if you think about it, like, if you sit back for a moment.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: And think, kind of makes a little bit of sense. Right.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: How are we getting tomatoes in January or February?
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Initially the thought is, well, greenhouses.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: No.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Turns out southern hemisphere.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Turns out it's the southern hemisphere where winter here is rare. Summer.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: Right. So anything any of your produces that you're getting that just probably aren't grown in cold climate. If you're getting them in the winter.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: In Michigan, off season produce is most likely going to be imported.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Yeah. So it makes sense that about half of their stuff would be imported then.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: Right?
[00:13:48] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Because about half the time it's out.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Of season because consumer demands it. The consumers demand it. You got to have strawberries year round.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: But they don't grow them year round.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Right. That is not natural. That is not a natural state. Like, if you're. If you want to talk about, like, eating natural, a lot of people will talk about ancestral. Ancestral eating ancestrally. The. You what you ate different depending on what time of year it was.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Seasonally, very seasonal. Eat your berries and your nuts when they're available. That's great. Yeah. When it can grow.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: Kind of thing.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: Right.
Or you had to can it and preserve it and save it and you got it canned, like on down the line, on down the timeline. But now we don't even have to have it canned. We can have it freshen to us year round.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: But it has to come from overseas and that's fine. Like, I totally am. I'm pretty okay with that. Except for the fact that the stipulations aren't the same. And it's not the same. We're not playing by the same rules.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: The US farmers are being pummeled.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: By these policies or the lack of enforcement of the policies that there underneath. And it's crushing.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: And that's one of the things that organic eye is bringing up. I believe they've actually filed a legal case because there's nothing in the organic law, the farm bill, you know, however you want to call it, there's nothing in that that allows for this lack of inspection and certification for imported products.
So it was just a decision that the USDA made that we will exempt them from these requirements.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: And I'm telling you, they were trying to be compassionate to the farmers down there.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And in the wording, it talked about developing countries, it was impoverished farmers in developing countries, having access to a market that they wouldn't otherwise have access to.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Which, on paper, I mean, it just sounds great.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: But then large companies get involved with it, and that farmer is still getting the same thing that that farmer was getting before. The large companies are making a lot of money, and the US and the.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: Small farmer is back to being taken advantage of.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: That's right. The US small farmer, then. Well, yeah, the small farmer in the other country is being taken advantage of still.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: The US small farmer is now out because he's being undercut as far as prices go.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: But agribusiness is winning.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: But the big companies are winning.
Yeah.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Okay, we'll get there.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: Another thing is a little bit of further research on, okay, well, how much organic grain is imported? Because for us, you know, we raise meat, chickens and pigs that are, you know, with our system reliant on grain.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: And because we eat a ketogenic diet, we do not eat grains.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: Our animals eat grains.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So to me. To me, grain is animal food.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: We. If you're tuning in for the first time and you've made it this far, we do not eat grains. We eat a keto slash low carb lifestyle carnivore. We all over the map on that sometimes. But point being, we have not eaten grains in five years. Our animals do eat grains.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: So I was interested, and, and we've talked about, well, do we buy organic grain for our animals now?
Even if we did, we still couldn't call it organic because we haven't gone through all of the certification processes. And the. And I, as we talked about, the us government owns the term organic. Right?
[00:17:42] Speaker B: No labels.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Even if we did feed them organic grain, we couldn't call it organic. So it would just be a. I don't know, like a waste of money, I think. But I did look into it to say, okay, how much? How much grain? Because we have looked into organic grain before. So 70% to 80% of organic soybeans and 60% to 70% of organic corn are imported. Oh, so if you.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: That's a lot.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: Yeah. If you look at that as. As tons, what you end up with is.
That's okay.
One of our cameras just quit.
I'll use the other one.
If you look at it as tons, so what. What you end up with is 400,000 to 500,000. So four to 500,000 tons of organic soybeans are imported annually.
Three to 400,000 tons of organic corn is imported.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: And then 100 to 150,000 tons of wheat and other grains.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Didn't it say the majority of it is used for livestock feed?
[00:19:05] Speaker A: Yeah, majority of it is used for livestock feed.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:19:10] Speaker A: So the, the livestock feed that is coming in and being sold as organic.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Organic is not.
98% of it is not inspected.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Awesome. So here's what we did.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Over a million tons of organic grain is coming in to the country from exports.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: It is being imported air quote, organic. And there's so much fraud in that, especially in that market. There. There was a case in the state of Missouri.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: That's correct, actually.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Where there was someone selling organic grains that full up were not organic. They were slapping label on it and selling it at the premium price and wound up getting convicted of fraud.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: And I think it didn't end well for him at all.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: No, he committed suicide. It was that bad at the end of that story.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Yeah, it was really bad.
But he.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: And he. It was.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: There were two ramifications.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: It was almost $150 million worth of fraud was the actual number.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: And there was, there was other stuff involved. But, like, point being is, I mean, with him personally.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: But the point being was. And that's what I was alluding to when I said, in the United States at least, there's some kind of recourse. Right.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: And that's evidence of the recourse that they will.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: He was investigated. It was found that he was fraudulently selling us grain as organic when it wasn't.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it's big. No, no.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Here. And the way that it was a little bit interesting side note, like, we're.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Doing that to our own people.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: But yet the way he was able to get around it was he had farmland that was certified organic. So the product itself isn't certified. It's the land that it comes from.
So his land was certified organic, but he was selling like ten to 15 times the amount of product that he could have produced then his land could produce. That's how it ended up coming out was he had a. He was supplying to a person, and when it came out how many acres he had, the person was like, there's no way. There's no way.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: Oh, so then you start digging, and.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Then it came out.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: That's how they were able to find it out.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Right. But so here's what we did with the, with the livestock feed.
We decided non GMo for reasons we just don't. Didn't want to do conventional for the food that we eat. We want to try to make it as clean as we can.
More importantly, it's local.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: It is bought.
We are a local farmer to our area. Of course we're local to us. That was silly. No, but we're here.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:20] Speaker B: Our feed supplier is here in the same town, and they source their grains within Missouri. And if they have to go any further, it's like Iowa to get the oats, because oats don't go grow as well here. And so they're locally grown, GMO free most of the time. He said they're actually organic, but they don't want to go the organic route.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: He doesn't want to.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: He doesn't want to deal with.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: And so it is GMO free. They are a local mill, and it is locally grown, grown grain. So the likelihood of it being. I'm just spitballing here. The likelihood of it being better.
It's because it's here.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Because the organics are. There's so much of it coming in from overseas that you don't even know what it is that at least it's local.
Supporting our local farmers. And that's where we're going with this.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: See, sometimes we even think things through, like, while we're talking.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: So where does that leave us?
[00:23:33] Speaker B: Local?
[00:23:35] Speaker A: As a consumer who's wanting a tomato?
[00:23:40] Speaker B: Yeah. You just want a good tomato, and you want so desperately to be able to trust the system that is providing you with your food.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: I would say from every angle we've looked at this, the system is not going to do that for you.
[00:24:02] Speaker B: No. It's as if they feign interest in your well being.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: But they don't actually have your well being or the well being of your family first.
Because if that were the case, and I know I'm kind of being negative here, but if that were the case, then some of these practices wouldn't be allowed. They would ensure that the stuff that's coming into the United States being sold to the families in this country, they would ensure that it is actually organic.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: It would appear that they are. They, the system, the agencies, are more interested in the impoverished farmer in a developing country than they are in the health and well being of the United States.
[00:24:50] Speaker B: Certainly feels that way.
Okay, so what can you do?
What can you, as the consumer, do if you are interested in putting the best food on your.
On your table?
[00:25:04] Speaker A: What. What we did was we said, we're going to grow our own.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Never mind.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Never mind.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: We're just gonna grow it ourselves.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: I'm gonna grow my own beef, my own pork, my own lamb, my own chicken, and if I want a vegetable, I'm getting it out of my garden.
Yeah. That's what we did. That is not an option for everyone, though.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: No, it's not. No. If you live in a city and you're hustling, you know that that's hard.
Although we lived in Washington, DC, just outside of Washington, DC. We bought a whole cow, we bought.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: A whole pig from local farmers.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: From local farmers just outside of DC. That's right. There are local farmers outside of the large cities.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: Dotted all over this country.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: So if you can't grow your own, and that's true for a lot of people. A lot of people, then find a local farmer that you trust. Visit the farm.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: Take a moment. This is your food. This is the health of your body and your family. Find a local farmer. Go visit the farm. See how it's being grown. If you like the condition that the animals are raised in. If you like the condition of the garden or the, or the crops that are being grown, there you go.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: And here's a pro tip. If the farmer who's growing your food doesn't want you to come visit the farm where he's growing your food, I would question how that farmer's growing your food, because if they are truly transparent, if they're truly growing the best food that they can, they will be transparent with you, then invite you in to come and see.
[00:26:32] Speaker A: Well, for us, it's, we're proud of what we're doing.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: Well, sure. Yeah.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: We want to show it off.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: We want to show people, look at what we're doing. Look at how we're growing your food.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Right. Yeah, we do.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: Because it's, it's different. It's in our mind better. Like, I want, I want you to see.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Like, I don't want to. I don't want to just tell you about it. Come, come check it out.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: So there are farmers dotted around the country just like, just like us. There are more and more. They're multi species. They're regenerative. They're growing food the best way that they can. You might find them at a local farmers market. In the big cities especially. There are some very large farmers markets out there. Check out eatwild.com.
and if you can't find those things, you, there are people that sell and they ship. So, for instance, start with somewhere like white pasture, white oak pastures. They ship. J and L. Green farms. They ship. There are resources out there.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: Poly face farm.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: Poly face farm ships will ship.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: We just can't ship our poultry outside of Missouri. But, like, right. Our, our focus is local. But sure, we have the ability to ship, right?
[00:27:54] Speaker B: There are farms all over this country who can get you better food if you are in a city in a more of a good food desert of sorts.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: And if. If it has to come from a grocery store, best bet is check the product or the label of origin.
Check to see where it's from.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: And if you've watched for a while, you know, we're good, better, best people, right. Eating produce is good, right.
Eating organic produce is better. So even though we don't know for sure that it is USDA inspected organic, look, you. You didn't know. I didn't know until now. All this information and we ate it. But one thing I noticed is it lasts longer. Well, why does it last longer? Well, maybe it was grown better.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: Maybe. Maybe.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Like, maybe I don't have proof of that. I'm just saying it's better. And then the best would be to find a local farmer, right? So just. Just to go back to the realities of it. Good, better, best, organic. But back to the grocery store. Buy the organic, you know, in season, right.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: If you're. If you're wanting to know that, you know that this is organic and you're wanting to do that at the grocery store, the best way to do that then is by it in season. Check the country of origin.
If it's coming from the United States somewhere, there is a much higher likelihood that it actually has been grown organically because it has been inspected.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: It has been inspected and they have met the requirements. And you're supporting a United States farmer, which I kind of like.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: I like you too.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: I'm.
Because I'm a United States farmer.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: Oh, okay, good. I'm glad you like me.
At any rate, you are supporting a. A at home farmer.
[00:30:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: So can we trust labels?
[00:30:14] Speaker B: I don't know.
I know I can trust local.
Yeah, I think it's local.
And speaking of local, y'all, thank you so much for your support with our local.
Our little store in our little town has just been hustling and bustling with the likes of people like you watching this, watching this podcast, how amazing that.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: Some folks have stopped by and said, hey, we watch you on YouTube.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: We love it. And we hope that you keep coming. And if you are looking for local beef or pork or lamb, chicken eggs, and we even have a local coffee roaster and some baked yummy goods in our store. We have all of those things for you and trying to keep it local. Local. No factory meets here, so air to ground meets is in full swing, and it is going really well.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: I just like to report that.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: That's right. And if you've made it this far, you probably care about us. So we had a wonderful vacation.
It was an awesome week where we were able to talk and think and really come back to why we're doing what we're doing. And it really boils down to good food, and we want to grow it, we want to sell it to our local community, and we want to talk about it. And all that is involved with good food. So thank you to those that asked how we were doing and wondered where we were.
It was, it felt really cool.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: It did our hearts good. Thank you.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: And until next time. Bye, y'all. Bye.
